PORTLAND, Ore. � Where's a little condensation when you really need it?
The Minnesota Timberwolves could have used some Saturday night when they finally met Portland 19 days after a scheduled game together at Target Center was postponed until April.
Or perhaps it would just delay the inevitable, which on Saturday was the Trail Blazers' convincing 112-100 victory at Moda Center.
Three weeks ago, the Wolves could clearly see the Western Conference's eighth and final playoff spot ahead of them fairly late in a season that still held hope.
Running on empty Saturday, they lost their sixth consecutive game, this time to a Blazers team that now has won 10 of its last 13 games and still can't catch streaking Denver for that final playoff spot.
The first time these teams met this season, Blazers guard CJ McCollum scored a career-high 43 points on New Year's Day night in Minneapolis and Portland won 95-89.
On to Portland: Karl-Anthony Towns had 12 first-half points against the Trail Blazers on Saturday night, but the Timberwolves trailed 60-46. McCollum had a big half for Portland with 21 points on 7-for-9 shooting.
McCollum made another statement to a Wolves team that bypassed him in the 2013 draft by scoring 32 points, including four three-pointers that doubled the two made by the entire Wolves' team.
The Wolves passed on the chance to take McCollum ninth overall in that 2013 draft, fearing he was too small (6-3) and slight to play shooting guard in the NBA. Instead, they opted to trade that ninth pick to Utah for the 14th and 21st picks. The Wolves chose guard Trey Burke for the Jazz, who in turn selected Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng for the Wolves.
The Blazers then simply took McCollum 10th overall out of Lehigh. Nearly four years later, McCollum and dazzling Portland point guard Damian Lillard have become one of the NBA's most dynamic backcourts.
Lillard added 21 points on a night when Andrew Wiggins led the Wolves with 20 points and Towns and Ricky Rubio each scored 16.
On Friday, the Wolves led 108-100 with fewer than 2{ minutes left and lost 130-119 to the sinking Lakers in Los Angeles after they allowed a 21-4 run that ended the fourth quarter and started overtime.
This time, the Wolves trailed 7-2 early, 41-29 by early in the second quarter and by as many as 24 after halftime. By then, Wolves forward Adreian Payne made his first game appearance since a Feb. 1 game at Cleveland while Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau sat his starters with the game well out of reach.
The teams' March 6 game was delayed until April 3 _ NCAA Final Four title night _ when an unusually warm and humid March day in Minnesota mixed with a sheet ice laid under the Target Center court for an ice show and college hockey tournament.
Or rather, the two things didn't mix.
They met Saturday for a regularly scheduled game in Portland. The last time these teams played there, the Wolves ended an eight-game losing streak at the Moda Center by winning 106-105 in last season's final week.
They did so after Towns' six-foot hook shot with 1.8 seconds left deafened a loud Saturday night and sent the Wolves home for the season's final two games after they had won Golden State, Sacramento and Portland on the same trip.
Four days later, the team announced on the season's final day that interim coach Sam Mitchell would not return.
A week after that, Wolves owner Glen Taylor agreed with Thibodeau on a five-year, $40 million deal to become coach and president of basketball operations.
Now 28-44, the Wolves remain one victory away from last season's 29-win total with 10 games left to play.
